Tandoori...anything

Anything can be made more delicious by covering it in tandoori spices, but my favourites are chicken and mushrooms, because both soak up all the flavours. This is based on Madhur Jaffrey's recipe in Flavours of India from 1995, which seems to be the Indian food bible for most British families like mine. It tastes amazing, but takes very little effort, as most of the hard word is done by the marinating and quick cooking process. This recipe makes enough marinade for 500g of anything, be that chicken, mushrooms, cauliflower, or...toast? No, not toast, but the rest of the fridge is fair game.

Tandoori anything


Dry seasonings
1 1/2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cloves or allspice


Wet seasonings
2 teaspoons fresh chilli
3 garlic cloves
4cm piece of fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons cream
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon canola oil

Some "anything" - chicken, mushrooms, any old vegetable
Lemon or lime juice to serve


Grind up the dry ingredients in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. Chop the chilli, garlic and ginger very finely, then add to the dry ingredients, along with the salt and paprika. Give everything a good stir. Add the cream, oil and water, then stir everything again. By now it should be looking thick, creamy, and smell amazing. 


Chop up whatever it is you're going to marinade. If you're using chicken, cut deep slits into the meat, or chop it up so that the marinade covers as much of it as possible. Pour the marinade into a container, add your chicken/mushrooms/anything you like, and stir it really well so everything is coated. Leave in the fridge until you're hungry, but wait at least a few hours.


You can either cook this in a seriously hot oven, or in a frying pan on the hottest element of the stove. It has to be hot though - traditionally, tandoori was cooked in a tandoor oven, which was incredibly hot, and also used for cooking flat breads. Once everything is cooked, each it straight away, with lemon or lime juice squeezed over the top.